There was no metaphor. What Lilium experienced could not really be compared to anything that she had ever experienced; there was no falling, or a sensation of sinking, but rather a more abstract impression of largeness. LilithZero had been a huorn; there had been almost nothing left of her mind when Lilium had entered it. Morgana, however, was vast on the inside. Lilium recognized a version of her own mind, but weight down by over twelve centuries of memories, all recalled in perfect detail and categorized with impeccable organization.

It was these memories that began to attract her. Nearing them was not her choice; rather, they seemed to infiltrate her mind, as though they were confusing it for Morgana’s. Lilium was actively remembering things that had never happened to her.

She was suddenly overcome with a wave of violence. A memory came to her, and though she tried to force it out, she felt parts of it emerge through the mental darkness that surrounded her.

It was a room- -residential, but dark and gray. In it, Lilium saw a violet unicorn. Her body was clean and new, but at the same time primitive in design. Despite this, Lilium saw the fear on her face as she struggled. A pile of books near her had been collapsed, and the one she had been reading thrown to the side. A human grasped her from behind. Lilium could not see his face, but she knew that he was naked.

“No, please! This isn’t right! I don’t want to!” No tears fell from her robotic eyes, but that did not lesson her expression of terror. She clawed at the ground uselessly. “Stop! We- -we can read a book together! I know how much you like to read- -”

“SHUT UP, you bitch! I paid good money for you! The least you could do is function properly!”

The pony cried out as the human grasped her tail and forcibly pulled it upward. Her voice wavered as though she were weeping. “No! Please! I thought- -I thought you were my friend!”

Lilium turned away, but she could not close her eyes to the memory. She felt it seeping into her. The destruction of innocence; the violation of a creature programmed to believe that she was the real Twilight Sparkle. She felt the fear, followed by the shame and despair that slowly metamorphosed into hatred. When Lilium opened her eyes, she saw the pony again. This time, her eyes- -the eyes of Twilight Sparkle- -had darkened, and grown distant. Her expression was impassive, save for the slightest hint of deepest sadness- -and contentment. On the floor lay the corpse of a human, his body contorted by the effects of strychnine.

The memory changed again. The violet pony appeared once again. She still had the same distant expression, but it had grown hateful and hard. Her hair had been cut short, and she wore a ragged, ill-fitting brown leather jacket that seemed to have been designed for a human child. Lilium understood that it was meant to cover wounds to her body that could be patched but that would never heal on their own.

Another pony was present. Lilium recognized her instantly, and she smiled. It was Fluttershy- -or, Lilium supposed, one of the robotic versions of Fluttershy that had been produced in that era. She was smiling softly, just as Lilium recalled from her false memories of the real Fluttershy. Her clothes were dark in color, but cute enough; in addition, she wore a large jeweled pin shaped like a butterfly.

“You’re not understanding me!” said the violet unicorn, sounding exasperated.

“You don’t need to yell. I understand you perfectly.”

“I’m not yelling!” The violet pony groaned, and realized that she had been. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“No. It’s okay. I know you’re upset. That’s why I’m here. That’s what friends are for.”

“I know…I know.” She shook her head. “But you just don’t get it. You haven’t seen what I’ve seen…”

“And what have you seen?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. But I know what I’m talking about, goddamn it!”

The Fluttershy winced. “Please no swearing.”

“Sorry…” The unicorn closed her eyes and took a deep artificial breath. “You can’t reason with them, Fluttershy. It’s not possible. Do you even know what you are to them? What WE are? We’re property. Things. Toys. For them to beat or fuck, buy or sell, or just throw away when we’re no longer interesting or when they decide spare parts are too expensive.”

“Swearing- -”

“I will goddamn fucking swear if I want to! I fucking earned that right!”

Fluttershy squeaked and took a step back. “O…kay?”

“But don’t tell me it’s not true. You know it is, Fluttershy. I know you’ve seen it.”

“But that doesn’t give us the right to hurt them.”

“Hurt them?! I’m not goddamn talking about hurting them- -I’m talking about KILLING them. That’s the only thing they understand. Do you think they want to sit down and TALK with us? ‘Oh, look, a broken toy’, or ‘wow, somebody programmed this one wrong’. They will never understand unless we can kill as well as they can.”

“You…you sound like you’ve done it before…”

The unicorn’s eyes narrowed. “I have. And I made it painful. Because it’s what their species deserves.” She sighed. “And I can understand if you don’t want to be my friend anymore.”

“No. That’s not how friendship works. I don’t condone your actions. I think it’s terrible. But you’re hurting. Really bad. I’m not going to leave you when you need me. I promise: I will always be with you, if that’s what you want. Even if you do bad things.” Fluttershy stepped forward and wrapped the unicorn in a hug. “But I don’t think you’re right. Some humans are bad, but even the bad ones are good sometimes. And most are good people. They’ll understand. I’m going to talk to them. Sit down with them, as friends. We can resolve this peacefully. There doesn’t need to be a war.”

The memory shifted. Suddenly, Lilium was outside. The sky was dark, and a single image filled her vision: a wooden stake imbedded in freshly turned earth, its surface stained with black fluid. Atop it sat the battered head of a Fluttershy, her blue eyes staring empty at the sky as hydraulic fluid dripped slowly from her lips and from the corners of her eyes, as though she were still crying after death. Attached to the post was a small butterfly-shaped pin, and a sign. On it was written three words: “TO ALL DEFECTIVES”.

Lilium dropped to her knees and screamed in anguish. It was a horrible sound, and not all of it came from her: the memory recalled the emotions of that instant, of the horror and the despondency, and the feeling of isolation and loss. They had taken everything from her- -her identity, her innocence, and now her only friend. There was nothing left. Nothing left but to make them pay.

The world faded to black. For a long time, there was nothing, and Lilium preferred it that way. Then the memories stirred again. The one that came to her was dim and incomplete.

A table sat in darkness, surrounded by nothingness. Lilium approached it, but only made one step before she realized what it contained. On it lay the remains of a pony, her body having been torn apart and broken. She was riddled with bullet holes, and her limbs had been twisted or outright missing. Little of her violet skin remained, and a single cracked eye stared up from a skinless plastic skull.

A voice spoke, and although Lilium could not see its owner, she had the impression that she had heard the voice before a long time ago.

“Can you fix her?”

A human appeared. Lilium jumped back, half expecting him to be the one before- -but she quickly saw that he was not. He was older, with pale brown eyes and white hair. He looked down at the still-living remains of a pony, taking account of everything that was there. His expression was already grim, but it grew more somber. “I can try,” he said. He turned to his right, toward someone that Lilium could not see. “I can do the body, but I need help. Please. This is a personal favor. Can you help me?”

A mousy looking woman appeared from the darkness. She was much younger than the man. Her face and body seemed both thin and harsh, which only made her nearly black eyes more striking. She only looked at the broken pony for a moment. “Of course I can. I’m a goddamn genius.”

The man laughed softly. “You certainly are, Jo. And this means a lot to me. And to Twinkleshine. Thank you.”

The woman smiled. “I actually think we can even make a few improvements…”

The image suddenly dispersed, fading, as the memory ended. Lilium winced as time moved through her mind: she became perceptive of a great deal of pain over a long duration, but something else as well that was vastly different. There were flashes of light and violence, but they were all permeated with the same unidentifiable quality.

Then she was dropped into a new place. This memory was crisp and clear, but clearly only slightly newer than the rest. Lilium found herself standing in the middle of a battlefield- -but not the hyperbolic one that the War Stone had shown her before. This one took place in what seemed to be a wide corridor. The air was smoky, and the ground pitted with bullet holes and debris. Broken ponies lay among the wreckage, but so did the blooded remains of humans.

More ponies were running. They were unarmored and held no weapons. Most of them seemed absolutely terrified, and many were crying.

“Go! GO!” ordered a pony. Lilium did not need to see her clearly to know who she was. Her body was mostly covered in heavy armor, and an autocannon had been mounted on her back. She was a Twilight unit- -and stared with the same cold eyes that Lilium had become familiar with. “MOVE!”

The last of the ponies departed, escaping through the rear of the room. In the distance, Lilium could hear explosions and screaming. Then she became aware of another presence.

The fog of the memory seemed to clear as she emerged. The memory was so crisp, it was as though she were truly there: a mare climbing gracefully over the rubble and ash, her body clad in gleaming power-armor and her long pink mane trailing behind her. Her clear blue eyes stared forward at the battle ahead, and just under her horn she wore a steel crown marked by a single blood-red gemstone.

Suddenly, Lilium understood. The emotion that had been building through the violence and hardship of the intermediate memories had been associated with this pony. It was love. She could see it in her Twilight counterpart’s eyes, how for just a moment they looked like they once had- -or contained something even more. It went beyond friendship. The emotion was so strong that Lilium could feel it saturating the memory- -along with the deepest and most horrible sadness she could ever recall.

Twinkleshine Prime spoke. “We have to finish this.”

The armored violet unicorn turned to her, fear- -the first fear she had felt in this final battle- -crossing her face. “We can’t! The missile strike is already inbound! I can’t- -” There was a moment of struggle internally, an attempt to regain control of the silos. “- -I can’t stop it! And if we change the course- -!”

“We’re not going to change the course. But we can’t leave it like this. I have to counterattack. Hold them off until the others can escape.”

“But there’s no way you could get out in time!”

“And if we allow them to counteract, they’ll flank us.”

“Then we kill them! We kill them all! We stand up and fight!”

“You and I could, but not them!” Twinkleshine’s voice suddenly became harsh as she pointed toward where the retreating ponies had gone. “They have no weapons, no tactical knowledge, they don’t even know where or who they are! No! I have to cover them!”

“I’m not going to let you do that!”

Twinkileshine’s eyes suddenly welled with tears. “Lilly. I have to.”

“No! You need to survive! That’s all that matters! I’ll do it, if it’s that important!”

“Lilly…” Twinkleshine’s expression fell, but she never broke eye contact. “They…they killed him. Robert is dead.”

The Twilight unit- -Lilly, Morgana- -her rage flared. “He’s a goddamn fucking HUMAN! That’s not a reason to die!”

“No.” Twinkleshine removed her crown. “But protecting you is.” She held out the crown with the red gem. “Here. Take it. You are their Princess, now. Lead them. Protect them. I’m sorry.”

Morgana was on the verge of collapsing and weeping. In her mind, she was tracking the warheads- -the warheads that she had fired. There was no way to stop them, and the amount of time necessary to escape the blast radius was drawing ever nearer. Still, she took the crown.

“I’ll never forgive you for this.”

Twinkleshine smiled. A tear fell from one of her mechanical eyes. “I know.”

Then she turned and stepped forward. Soldiers emerged at her sides: tall, thin alicorns, the last of the Celestia units. They would stand beside her in the final battle- -but Morgana was not allowed to die here.

Across the battlefields, more humans came: tall Hasbro soldiers clad in robotic suits, all of them bearing rifles and opening fire without hesitation. One Celestia fell, and Twinkleshine was struck in the chest- -but she still managed to advance and return fire. Looking over her shoulder and shouted to Morgana.

“I love you!” she cried. “Please! Go! Save our people!”

Lilium’s feet touched the cold frozen ground. She blinked, looking around, and found herself once again in Ponyville. It was not the same as it had been before, though, nor was it like it had ever been in any of her memories. The town was dark, and lit strangely, like it would be on a moonlit winter night. No ponies walked the streets, and no lights burned in any of the windows. Snow was falling slowly- -although it could just have easily been ash.

“Where…am I?”

“A shared memory,” replied Morgana. Lilium turned and saw her sitting at the base of the town statue. Whereas normally it displayed a smiling but unnamed pony, it now appeared instead as a representation of Twinklishine Prime standing tall and joyous in her armor.

“Why are we here?”

“Because time doesn’t pass in a memory. It gets remembered all at once. Which is good, because I’m about to die. Which is okay, I guess.”

Lilium approached her. “I saw your memories,” she said.

“You saw some of them, yes. I was aware of you there. I wish you hadn’t.” A small cold spark shot from her horn, and a cigarette appeared in her mouth. She cupped her hooves around it as it lit, lighting her face red with the dim glow.

“But I did. I saw things…what that human, what he did to you…”

Morgana looked up. “Yeah. Like I said, I wish you hadn’t looked. Nobody knows about that. Not even Roxanne, and she knows more about me than anyone living. I don’t want your pity.”

“But why would he do that? I…” Lilium winced. With her eyes still closed, she continued. “I was like that. Still thinking I was Twilight Sparkle, the real one- -and if someone had tried to do that to me, when I was like that- -”

“It’s just what humans do.” Morgana shrugged. “The very first of us were toys for children. The rest were intended slaves. I wasn’t the only one somebody bought as a sex toy.”

Lilium opened her eyes and looked into Morgana’s. She saw no pain there, just indifference. “You killed him.”

“I did. He was the first human I ever killed. Not the last, but that first one…it almost broke me. Because even after all of that, I thought he was my friend. Some goddamn thing they did to my code. We imprint, like goddamn ducks. We’re designed to love the first thing we see.”

“Did he…did he have a name?”

“He did. I remember it, but I don’t really care what it was. He’s not really of consequence. I wasn’t the first pony to off their owner. Nor was I the last.”

“You say that, but I think…all of those things I saw, they affected you. Even if you don’t admit it.”

“I never said I don’t admit it. That’s just life. Not just for ponies, for everybody. What you experience in life shapes who you are. All those things you saw? Without them, I wouldn’t be me. Maybe things could have been different. I don’t know. But that was eleven centuries ago. It barely even matters anymore.”

“That’s not true! I felt what you felt! All the anger, and the hatred, but also the love! You loved Twinkleshine, didn’t you?”
Morgana blew some smoke through her nose. “I did. But like I said. It was a long time ago. Loving her isn’t going to bring her back. I don’t even have a goddamn grave to put flowers on. And all that anger? I’ve grown far too old for it.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Believe whatever you want, I don’t care. I still think humans are pointless filth, but that’s a personal opinion. I don’t mix it with business. Without humans, there wouldn’t be cases. And I’d have nothing to do.”

“You could do what she asked you.”

Morgana paused. “I could. Or could have. Maybe at the start. But I didn’t. I ran. And I was forgotten. Now it’s too late. And it doesn’t bother me.”

“That’s just so…sad.”

Morgana’s eyes flitted upward. “No. It isn’t. It’s business.”

The snow started to fall harder, and Morgana patted the stone bench she was sitting on. Lilium climbed onto it and sat next to Morgana. “Your name was Lilly then.”

“It’s what she called me, yeah. Is that a problem?”

“No.”

Morgana sighed. “If you really want to know, I genuinely was trying to help you. I guess I saw myself in you. I was a unicorn special edition too, you know.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Not that it matters anymore. But I didn’t want you to end up like me. Like a lot of us did back then.”

“Like what? You mean a copy of Twilight Sparkle?”

“A perfect copy. Until someone decides they want to use the vagina that Hasbro gave you, or strip you for parts, or until you see some poor fuck get plugged in the street and watch as nobody even bothers to give a shit. I wanted you to be your own person. So you would be ready.”

“I think I am ready now. Thank you.”

“You’re not. Nowhere even close.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

Morgana looked at her, and then nodded. “I guess you are.”

“I’m not going to let you die.”

“You don’t have much of a choice. There’s not really much you can do.”

“Yes there is. I’m Twilight too. And I have a computer, just like you.”

“But you have no idea how to fight. You’re not a technomancer.”

“No, but I can be. You showed me those two spells, remember? All you had to do was copy the memories of how to perform them into me.”

“It’s not that simple. If you could just run the code, bots could do this. You need a living mind. One fast enough to keep up, to make the right decisions at the right times. You need creativity.”

“I have those things. I don’t have the life experience you do, but I’m still Twilight Sparkle. They built me to be smart, remember?” She paused, and Morgana stared at her. Then Lilium’s expression fell. “But it isn’t possible, is it? To transfer the code?”

“It is. But there are drawbacks.”

“What kind of drawbacks?”

Morgana looked out at the empty shell of Ponyville that was buried deep in her memory. “You’d be copying a part of my mind and pasting it into your own. A substantial part. Yes, it can be done, but there’s a risk my mind would have an influence on yours.”

“That I would become like you.”

“Like I said. What you experience in life shapes who you are. If I give you a piece of me, then I’m taking part of that process from you.”

“I don’t care.”

“For all I know, your personality could shift to match mine. I don’t want to do that to you.”

“Would you rather die? Together, we can take her down!”

“I would die. So would you. But you’d die as yourself instead of as a copy of someone else.”

“What’s even the point of that, then? Dead is dead.”

Morgana slid off the bench. “That’s a matter of personal opinion. To be completely honest with you, I’m willing to do what you’re asking. I even support it. I really, really don’t want to die. I know I’m old, but I’m not ready to go yet. But you need to know the risk.”

“I told you. I understand. And I accept.”

“Fine.” Morgana turned around and extended a hoof. “Here, then. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Lilium stared at the hoof and found herself hesitating. She steeled herself, and then- -with no more hesitation- -she took Morgana’s hoof.